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A review of environmental life cycle assessment studies examining cheese production

  • LCA FOR AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES AND BIOBASED INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS
  • Published:
The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Cheese is one of the world’s most widely consumed dairy products and its popularity is ever growing. However, as concerns for the environmental impact of industries increase, products like cheese, which have a significant environmental impact, may lose their popularity. A commonly used technique to assess the environmental impact of a product is life cycle assessment (LCA). In this paper, a state-of-the-art review of LCA studies on the environmental impact of cheese production is presented.

Methods

Sixteen LCA studies, which explored the impact from the production of a variety of cheese types (fresh, mature and semi-hard) were examined and discussed. The four stages of the LCA were examined and the range of results of selected environmental impact categories (global warming potential, acidification potential and eutrophication potential) were detailed and discussed.

Results and discussion

For each of these environmental impact categories, raw milk production was consistently found to be the most significant contributor to the total impact, which was followed by processing. It was found that allocation between cheese and its by-products was crucial in determining the impact of cheese production and standardisation or guidelines may be needed. Very little information relating to wastewater treatment system and processes were reported and this leads to inaccurate environmental impact modelling relating to these aspects of the manufacture of cheese. Very few studies included the design of packaging in terms of reducing food waste, which may significantly contribute to the overall environmental impact.

Conclusions

As raw milk production was found to have the greatest contribution to environmental impact, mitigation strategies at farm-level, particularly in relation to enteric fermentation and manure management, need to be implemented. Additionally, based on the literature, there is a suggestion that fresh cheese has less of an environmental impact than semi-hard cheeses, particularly when examining direct energy consumption. However, there needs to be more case studies investigated to justify this statement.

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Funding

The first and last authors would like to acknowledge funding provided by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine for the DairyWater project (Ref.: 13-F-507); for additional details: www.dairywater.ie. The second and third authors would also like to acknowledge funding from Enterprise Ireland (Grant No. TC 2014 0016). The last author would like to acknowledge the support of Science Foundation Ireland through the Career Development Award programme (Grant No. 13/CDA/2200).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Engineering and Informatics, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland

    William Finnegan & Jamie Goggins

  2. Ryan Institute for Environmental, Marine and Energy Research, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland

    William Finnegan & Jamie Goggins

  3. School of Biosystems and Food Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Mingjia Yan & Nicholas M. Holden

  4. Centre for Marine and Renewable Energy (MaREI), Galway, Ireland

    Jamie Goggins

Authors
  1. William Finnegan
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  2. Mingjia Yan
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  3. Nicholas M. Holden
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  4. Jamie Goggins
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to William Finnegan or Jamie Goggins.

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Responsible editor: Greg Thoma

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Finnegan, W., Yan, M., Holden, N.M. et al. A review of environmental life cycle assessment studies examining cheese production. Int J Life Cycle Assess 23, 1773–1787 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-017-1407-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-017-1407-7

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